The paper has as object of research the genesis of the concept of immaterial labor developed and widely disseminated by Antonio Negri. From the perspective of the Italian left, we analyze, initially, the impact of the Depression of 1929 and the two main devices, Fordism and Keynesianism, developed and expanded intensively to overcome this first major cycle of crisis of the twentieth century. In the sequel, we tackle the Workerism - movement emerged in Italy amid labor struggles of the 1960s and 1970s - in its historical context and central themes. The Workerism while movement that brought together many young thinkers around the proposal of reading Marx s work, sought not merely a theoretical construct, but, above all, create instruments of criticism and action for workers struggles that unfolded in the second great cycle of crisis of capitalism in the 1970s. Finally, we will discuss the concept of immaterial labor - a concept under construction, which has several disputes on lathes of its fundamental elements. We will discuss the biopolitical dimension, and subjective, economic and political aspects of this concept based on formulations developed by Antonio Negri.